May 21 (UPI) — Scottish Power plans to build two winds farms in the United States that could eventually power 400,000 homes.
The subsidiary of the Iberdrola Spanish utility company announced plans to finish construction of the windmills off the coast of Massachusetts by 2022 and North Carolina by 2025.
The winning bid’s amount wasn’t announced.
“We as a country are seen to be the leaders in this type of technology,” Keith Anderson, Scottish Power’s chief corporate officer, said in a statement. “It’s great to be creating opportunities and developing skills in the U.K., but also to see these being exported.”
He said “colossal farms” are possible because of the “huge amount of land” available in the United States.
Each site is the size of the company’s entire portfolio in the United Kingdom.
The Vineyard Wind project is 115 square miles located 14 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts.
The location in North Carolina wasn’t listed, but its eventual power is 2,500 megawatts compared with 1,500 MW in Massachusetts. One megawatt equals 1,000 kilowatts.
“The addition of North Carolina’s first utility-scale wind project brings U.S. installed wind power capacity to 84,143 MW across 41 states,” according to a report from the American Wind Energy Association on May 2.
That total wind capacity is enough to power about 8.4 million homes.
Texas is the No. 1 state for installed wind power capacity.
ScottishPower Renewables now has 30 operational windfarm sites producing over 1,600 megawatts, according to its website.
“The cost differential between onshore and offshore was so large that a lot of people never thought that America would be interested. But now we’re starting to see the process pick up speed as the cost of offshore wind comes down,” Anderson said.
Scottish Power now is developing projects in Germany and France.
“British innovation and expertise are valued highly around the world,” Emma Pinchbeck of RenewableUK, the industry’s trade body, told The Telegraph. “Other countries are looking closely at our world-leading offshore wind industry and seeking to learn from it, so that they can emulate our success.”
